


before the storm

by choppyVy



Series: love over loneliness [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: 2x12 continuation, Caring Alec, M/M, Magnus is determined not to push Alec away, exhausted magnus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 17:03:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11212398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choppyVy/pseuds/choppyVy
Summary: Magnus is determined not to push Alec away ... and tries, by pulling him as close as he can, until exhaustion takes over.





	before the storm

Alec is not surprised when Magnus grasps one of Alec’s hands tightly, leading the way to the shower. Magnus repeating his earlier, ”Come.” Causing Alec to unrobe and follow Magnus, climbing already under the hot water streaming down.  
Alec has never been naked in the shower with anyone, let alone a man he is in love with. Usually, being naked with Magnus would send a thrill through him, tonight … he feels nothing but concern, and the pain radiating off the man he loves, as he watches Magnus step further into the stream of water, watches it rush along the skin of the back the soft feel of which he know so intimately.  
Alec is still just standing there, when Magnus’s hands shoot out against the wall, like the warlock is desperately grasping for purchase.  
This has Alec unfreeze, stepping himself into the stream.  
As Magnus’s back comes to rest against Alec’s chest, Alec can feel his boyfriend beginning to shake. “Magnus?”  
Alec feels them sharp against his own skin, the deep breaths Magnus tries to heave, to steady the shaking, but it won’t cease, only increases … until, Alec rests his hands over Magnus’s on the wall. Relief flooding him as Magnus intertwines their fingers, and the shaking slowly calms, as if their hands, joined, are finally giving Magnus true hold.  
After a minute, that feels much longer than that to Alec, he feels Magnus’s breathing even out against his chest.  
“Alexander,” Magnus lets slip past his lips, as he pushes himself of the wall and fully leans back into Alec. Whole body resting into Alec’s, Magnus, turns his head, cheek pressed to Alec’s chest as he opens his eyes at Alec, no energy left to keep up any remnant of glamour.  
Alec cannot help the thought as a golden-eyed Magnus, hair plastered wet to his forehead, looks up at him, ‘You look so young.’ He does not say it. It feels like a ridiculous thought anyway, knowing what his boyfriend has just had to go through, reliving all that pain, accumulated over such a long time, unimaginable to anyone living just this one life. Mortality has its privileges.  
Eyes pleading Magnus flicks his gaze to the side, towards a bottle of orange blossom scented body wash and a slightly roughened flannel placed there with it.  
Magnus is still resting with his back against Alec’s chest when Alec gently begins to slide the now soaped up flannel along Magnus’s clavicles, both arms, up and down, massages the scent into Magnus’s hands and then, rinsing the flannel briefly out and reapplying the body wash, allows his touch to glide along Magnus’s pecs, the wide plains of all of his torso, his abdomen.  
There is nothing sexual about it tonight when Alec, issuing a brief warning to Magnus to hold on to something other than him, gets down on his knees and continues his ministrations on every inch of Magnus’s lower body.  
Getting back to his feet, casting the flannel aside, Alec is faced with an even more exhausted looking warlock.  
Magnus slumps forward, face first this time, against Alec’s wet chest.  
Alec uses his bare hands to work the scented wash along Magnus’s back. Reaches over then to find a green apple scented shampoo he works into Magnus’s black hair. Earning an appreciative hum, as Magnus recognizes the smell, a “Thank you.”  
Carefully manoeuvring both of them back fully under the stream, still steadily falling onto the tiles under their feet the products are washed away from both their bodies, the sweet scent lingering between the two of them.  
“Let me get you to bed,” Alec suggests tentatively as he reaches over, turning off the still strumming stream of water.  
With all background noise suddenly gone it sends a jolt of fright through Alec how sparse with words Magnus has been all night.  
There is only the physical response of Magnus pressing closer to him for Alec to interpret as quiet agreement. So he wraps up the warlock in his arms and carries him back into the bedroom, lying him down on the covers, skin still wet as he retrieves some towels, drying them both off.  
“Just some underwear?” Alec asks tentatively. It is how they sleep most nights, that or naked, but even after just taking a shower together, tonight, that option feels somehow wrong.  
Alec incredulously smiles at his boyfriend when in answer to his question blue sparks fly and he suddenly finds himself covered in black boxer briefs, a matching pair on Magnus and a warmth in his tired gaze Alec had missed all night.  
Crawling under the covers, literally, Magnus attempts to clear his throat, voice rough and tired, “Come …. Come to bed, darlin’.”  
After all this, Alec stands there, … hesitating, terribly unsure why.  
That is until Magnus adds, “I want you to stay.”  
And Alec does not know why or how Magnus knew, as so often better than he does himself, that … he needed to hear it.  
There is that saying of quiet before a storm, Alec, settled beside Magnus under the covers, watching the warlock’s eyes drift shut, wishes he did not know it, maybe then he could fall asleep instead of, curled up on his side, looking over at his boyfriend … waiting … for that storm.


End file.
